Episode #406 "Bye-Bye Basement"

When Hyde shows up at the Forman breakfast table in a ratty bathrobe at 7:30 in the morning and proceeds to chow down on waffles, it’s his way of telling everyone that he’s living there again. His dad was transferred, he tells them, and it’s a sensitive issue with him, so he’d rather not talk about it. Kitty drops the bomb that she’s having the basement redecorated. Red’s not happy about what it will cost him, and Eric’s horrified that his “Bat Cave” is going to disappear. The kids are sitting around the basement reminiscing about the good times they’ve had there when Kitty comes in. Eric tries to convince her that she wouldn’t like the basement; it’s insect-infested and probably haunted. But Donna tells Kitty she thinks it’s a good idea. Eric can’t believe Donna could be so disloyal, but Donna says that now that they’ve broken up, she’s free to voice her real opinion. Fez arrives and announces that his love of dance has led him to take the next logical step, to enroll in ballet class. Kitty introduces Red to their new contractors, Theo and Leo, the stoner and Hyde’s boss, who claims he’s a reformed man. Kelso goes to class with Fez, saying that he wants to dance too, but Fez refuses to be ridiculed and sends him away. Donna and Eric continue bickering, and Donna tells him that while they were dating she kept many annoying things about him to herself. For example, he has tiny wrists. At the ballet studio, Fez has a dance fantasy about himself in a zoot suit surrounded by beautiful dancers. He is challenged by Hyde, Kelso and Eric dressed in coveralls. Fez defeats them one by one and swaggers away with the women. The gang is shooting baskets in Eric’s driveway when Fez arrives and confides that things are not good at ballet class; he’s become one of the girls. Eric and Hyde persuade Theo and Leo to abandon their work in the basement and pursue something more fulfilling. Theo and Leo present a virtually unchanged basement to Red and Kitty and inform them that they moved everything two inches to the left, and their basement is a work of art. Clearly their contractors are on dope, says Kitty. Hyde confesses to Eric that the real reason he’s back is that his parents got back together and took off. And Donna apologizes to Eric, explaining that maybe some residual feelings from the break-up have been responsible for her bitchiness.